Reading the visual image for meaning can be challenging. It is important that students develop a language for describing the visual elements of a picture book illustration so that they can contemplate how the meaning is developed. This can then be transported, and built upon, when looking at the visuals in film, television and electronic multimodal texts, as well advertising and newspaper text, where the nature of the images may perform a vital role in persuading the viewer of the meaning and focus.
A valuable text for developing a vocabulary of visual literacy is Kress and van Leeuwen's Reading Images with which many of you are well familiar (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).
Elements to think about include:
angle
appropriation
audience
background
colour
composer
composition
context
fragmentation
framing
gaze
illumination
intertextuality
line
metafictive
mise-en-scène
modalities
mode
mood
perspective
position
representation
subversion
tenor
tone
vectors
viewer
The above list draws on a number of areas for the decoding of these elements, including the visual arts and film literacy. They have been employed to analyse a range of multimodal texts, from the picture books that are my focus, to layout of a web page and the intricacies of film noir. There are other elements that can be considered which add to the power available to the visually literate discourse analyst. Becoming visually literate allows the reader / viewer to be alert to the persuasiveness of text. Acquisition of a visual language to use in exploring all forms of multimodal text such as
Visual Grammar
Reading the visual image for meaning can be challenging. It is important that students develop a language for describing the visual elements of a picture book illustration so that they can contemplate how the meaning is developed. This can then be transported, and built upon, when looking at the visuals in film, television and electronic multimodal texts, as well advertising and newspaper text, where the nature of the images may perform a vital role in persuading the viewer of the meaning and focus.
A valuable text for developing a vocabulary of visual literacy is Kress and van Leeuwen's Reading Images with which many of you are well familiar (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).
Elements to think about include:
The above list draws on a number of areas for the decoding of these elements, including the visual arts and film literacy. They have been employed to analyse a range of multimodal texts, from the picture books that are my focus, to layout of a web page and the intricacies of film noir. There are other elements that can be considered which add to the power available to the visually literate discourse analyst. Becoming visually literate allows the reader / viewer to be alert to the persuasiveness of text.
Acquisition of a visual language to use in exploring all forms of multimodal text such as